


Magic City

by TwilightKnight17



Category: Tales of Xillia
Genre: Family Fluff, Gen, Ludger is such a dad even when he doesn't know, post-Chapter 10, slight angst I guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-10
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-08-30 03:41:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8517178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwilightKnight17/pseuds/TwilightKnight17
Summary: Sleep doesn't come easy after a particularly rough fractured dimension, but a city where dawn never breaks provides ample distraction.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently I am going to write nothing but genfic for this fandom. That's new for me. X'''D And I make no secret of the fact that Fennmont is my favorite city. I had a mental image, and I really wanted to write the scene around it. So I did.

Ludger could admit to being a _bit_ puzzled why they were going to Fennmont, but Rowen and Jude had insisted that the former capital of Rashugal and the location of the foremost medical school in Rieze Maxia would provide a great opportunity for more jobs. More than enough to balance out the tickets to get there by boat, anyway. Plus, apparently there were a few elite monsters in the area as well.

After everything that had happened in fractured Thor, Ludger was too tired to argue, so they had boarded a ship from Marksburg and set sail. What Rowen and Jude had neglected to mention, however, was how long the trip was, and so it was late when they finally arrived outside of the city.

“How do you know?” Elle demanded, staring up at the sky in blatant fascination. “You said this Fennmont place is night all the time. It could still be afternoon!”

Rowen held up his GHS triumphantly. “Ah, but the time itself does not change just because the sky does.” The GHS’s screen still read 11:45, marking it as being almost midnight.

“But I want to look around!” It was obvious that Elle had immediately fallen in love with the glowing city, and Ludger couldn’t blame her. It was amazing to look at. The buildings and street lamps all cast a soothing golden glow over the city, and everything reflected in the canals that ran back towards the harbor.

“We’ll look tomorrow,” Elize promised. “I’ll even go with you. I’m sure there’s plenty of shops here. We might even find a bunnykins!”

That pacified Elle for the moment, along with being able to look at things as they walked towards the hotel. She even held Ludger’s hand, mostly so that she wouldn’t have to look where she was going.

Ludger himself nearly had a heart attack when he saw how big the hotel was. In a city like this, rooms were probably disgustingly expensive. But Jude managed to secure a discount when the desk clerk recognized “Dr. Mathis” as an alumnus of the school, and Leia and Alvin chipped in to cover Ludger’s portion of the bill. He’d long-since given up telling his friends to stop doing that. His debt was extensive, yes, but he didn’t want them to feel obligated to cover for them. But every time he tried, they insisted, saying that he had enough to worry about already.

The rooms were small, but cozy. Gaius and Muzet had returned to Kanbalar to check in on official government business, so they were able to get two four-bed rooms with no problems. Rowen and Alvin went to sleep almost immediately, and Ludger wanted to laugh at how quickly they passed out. Jude stayed up with him for a bit, talking a little about Fennmont and what it had been like to live here, but eventually he succumbed to sleep as well. That left Ludger, who despite his best efforts and the very comfortable bed, could not seem to fall asleep. Even Rollo had gone to sleep on the end of Rowen’s bed (which, to be honest, had made Ludger a little jealous, but Rowen wasn’t rolling over every two minutes).

He laid there for fifteen minutes, unable to shut his mind down enough to finally drop off, and eventually he gave up and sat up. Quietly, to not bother the others, he put on his shoes and headed out into the hallway, where he found Elle sitting in one of the chairs by the window. She looked up at him when he walked over, and asked bluntly, “Couldn’t sleep either?”

Ludger shook his head. He glanced out the window, which had a perfect view of the plaza below, and asked quietly, “Want to go explore?”

“Yeah!” Belatedly, she realized how loudly she’d spoken, and added more quietly, “I want to go see those blue buildings.”

“All right. Let’s go, then.”

xxx

The streets were nearly deserted this late, but the buildings glowed as brightly as ever. Together, they meandered their way through the plaza, admiring the fountain before looping back and heading into the research district. There, the golden glow dissolved to an unearthly blue, and Elle took it all in with wide eyes and a bright smile.

They found a set of stairs that led right down to the canal, and Ludger helped her take her shoes off so that she could sit and dip her feet in the water. He joined her a moment later, and for a long time, they just sat and watched the lights ripple on the moving water.

“Ludger?” Elle asked eventually. “Why couldn’t you sleep?”

He didn’t know what to tell her. How did you explain to an eight-year-old that you felt like you were drowning in the blood of half a million people, and more atop that besides? Odin had made it very clear that he was destroying any hope of the citizens of Thor ever existing again. Ludger didn’t know if it was just the entrance that had collapsed in this dimension, or the entire ruins, but either way they were currently inaccessible. He’d doomed them to a literal grave.

Elle was watching him expectantly, and he finally settled on, “Have you ever been so tired that it actually keeps you from falling asleep?”

“Oh! Yeah, because your eyes get all itchy and you keep yawning and it’s irritating,” Elle said, completely understanding. “So you gotta walk around and get more awake and then you can go to sleep.”

“Right.” Bless her for not questioning it. “What about you?”

She kicked her feet in the water, watching the reflections. “I was thinking about Rollo and Milla,” she said.

“Rollo and Milla?”

“Yeah. You saw what happened when the fractured Rollo met the real one.” Elle looked worried in a way that she hadn’t for quite a while. “What if when Jude’s Milla comes back, our Milla disappears? I don’t want that to happen.”

Ludger had been thinking something similar, although his was more of a vague thought of _what if Jude’s Milla can’t be summoned because there’s already one here?_ But he had pushed that aside, unwilling to deal with maybes when there were more concrete things worthy of worry. He patted Elle on the head, trying to sound reassuring. “It’ll be fine. We just won’t let them see each other, right? Jude’s Milla has Maxwell’s job. I’m sure she won’t be able to stay in our world for long, when she does show up.”

“Are you sure?” Elle asked.

“Of course.”

She stared at him, and he was certain that she knew he wasn’t sure. But she didn’t say anything else, and went back to staring at the water with a small smile.

xxx

Their last lap of the plaza brought them to Orda Bridge, where Ludger lifted Elle up to sit on the railing. He stood behind her, arms solidly around her waist to ensure that she wouldn’t overbalance and end up in the canal. But Elle just leaned back against his chest, head lolling on his shoulder.

“Sometimes you remind me of Daddy,” she said. “Especially since you can cook really good. But you treat me more like a kid than Daddy does.”

Ludger smiled. “Well, I have to look after you. What would your daddy do to me if he found out that I let something bad happen to you?”

She giggled. “Well, you’re doing a good job, I guess.” Looking around at everything, she added, “This place is amazing; I can’t believe Jude lived here. It’s like a fairytale. There’s even a castle, and the plants glow!”

“Jude told me that the plants have special spirit artes in them. Just small ones, to give light,” Ludger said. “I’d guess most of the building lights are the same way. So it really is sort of a magic city.”

“Wow…” Elle tipped her head back to look at him. “Do you think we can go in the castle tomorrow?”

Considering that the castle had been turned into some sort of public building, which Ludger couldn’t remember the specifics of, it was highly likely. “You’ll have to ask Rowen, but I think so.”

Elle looked excited, but it was ruined by the yawn that took over a moment later. Ludger lifted her off the railing, carefully setting her on her feet. “We should head back to the hotel. I think we’ve woken up enough to sleep now,” he said.

“Yeah.” Another yawn, and Elle reached for his hand. “Ludger? Thanks for taking me exploring.”

He squeezed her hand gently. “Of course, Elle.”

Their journey hadn’t been easy, right from the very beginning. He had to do what he could to give her little moments of happiness, until they could finally get her home.


End file.
